The Little Merboy
by Amithedragontrainer
Summary: I arch an eyebrow. "So you have heard of the story of the little mermaid, Ariel. But have you heard of Urchin." Smiling I add, "His story is mostly centered around hers. Unfortunately, his ending is not quite as happy. Then again, he's still writing it."
1. Prologue

__**The day is cold. You shiver as you enter the room, eyes widening as your eyes fall on me. The young woman who sits in a chair. A blanket covers my legs. I watch you as you enter. "Greetings," I tell you. "My name is Ami. I don't know your name, but that will come with time."**

**You are about to speak, but I continue. "Do you know the story of the little mermaid?"**

**You nod. "Doesn't everyone?" you ask.**

**I arch an eyebrow. "So you have heard of the story of the little mermaid, Ariel. But have you heard of Urchin." Smiling I add, "His story is mostly centered around hers. Unfortunately, his ending is not quite as happy. Then again, he's still writing it."**

_Urchin sighed impatiently. "When's King Triton gonna come out?"_

_From her seat beside him, Gabriella shrugged and signed. Ollie, her octopus friend and translator, spoke for her: "I don't think it will be much longer."_

_Urchin eyed the barely lit stage. "I hope so! We've been waiting forever!"_

_Gabriella read his lips and giggled. "No, it's only been a few minutes," she signed._

_Ariel's first official public performance was today, and her two close friends, Urchin and Gabriella, had heard quite a lot about it from her. She was always groaning about how often Sebastian, King Triton's advisor and royal musical conductor, held rehearsals. She had often skipped the rehearsals with Urchin and Gabriella, as well as Ariel's closest friend, a fish named Flounder._

_Suddenly, the stage lit up. Excited, the crowd hushed. Then applause broke out as King Triton appeared in his dolphin-pulled golden chariot. As always, the king was gruff and serious. He waved his glowing trident at the crowd, who all just cheered louder. _

_Urchin stuck his fingers in his mouth and emitted a high-pitch whistle. King Triton looked around for the shrill sound. When his eyes fell on Urchin, a small smile darted across the king's face. Urchin, Gabriella, and Ollie waved. In return, King Triton raised an eyebrow. He continued driving his chariot around the arena, pausing only briefly to shoot a beautiful show of light above the crowd's heads. They cheered even louder._

_The little seahorse introduced Sebastian and out came Sebastian, in his own chariot. Ollie laughed softly as Sebastian tried to control the two goldfish pulling his chariot. The crowd applauded for Sebastian, who gave them all a big, proud grin. This was a big day for the old crustacean. He was as excited about it as Ariel was tired of it._

_Sebastian's goldfish sped up to drive alongside King Triton's chariot, and the two exchanged brief words. Urchin poked Gabriella, who nodded and read their lips._

_Ollie read her signs. "King Triton says that he is looking forward to this performance." Ollie then began imitating Sebastian's strange accent. "He-he-he! Oh, Your Majesty, dis will be de finest concert I have ever conducted! Your daughters – dey will be spectacular!" _

_Gabriella grinned as the goldfish reared and Sebastian almost fell out of his chariot. She continued signing the conversation. Ollie read, in King Triton's deep, somber voice, "Yes! And especially my little Ariel!"_

_Urchin grinned. "He got that right!" the merboy whispered. Ollie gave him a teasing grin. Looking away, Urchin blushed._

_Gabriella frowned, looked at Ollie, and signed, "There's a bit more, but I couldn't catch it."_

_Urchin shrugged. "That's okay," he assured her. They watched as Sebastian finally managed to control his goldfish. He drove them up to the podium. Reaching into his shell-like chariot, Sebastian tugged a huge book of musical notes out and set it on the podium. The crowd was silent now, and the water seemed static with the excited anticipation. Pulling a little baton out, the crab stared down at the orchestra imposingly, and then began to wave his baton. The orchestra struck up a lively tune._

_Urchin and Gabriella watched as three huge, beautiful clam shells rose from behind a wall. They had seen the rehearsal dozens of times, and weren't as excited as the crowd when Ariel's six sisters popped out of the clam shells and began to introduce themselves through song._

_Finally, one more clam shell – even bigger and more beautiful than the other sisters' shells – rose up, and the sisters swum around it. They sang happily, gesturing to the shell, ready to introduce their youngest sister. The shell slowly opened to reveal –_

_But it was empty!_

_The sisters and the crowd gasped and began to chatter. Urchin, Gabriella, and Ollie winced. "Uh-oh," moaned Ollie._

"_Here it comes!" Urchin added, covering his ears._

_Livid and red-faced, King Triton leapt from his seat at the throne, howling, "ARIEL!"_

_Gabriella signed to her two friends. "Come on, let's go find her." Urchin and Ollie nodded, and the three set off in search of their friend._

_/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\_

"_Where is she?" signed Gabriella frantically as the threesome swam back to the palace. They had searched for an hour, but there had been no sign of Ariel.  
>Urchin stopped. Hearing lots of yelling coming from the throne room, he held his arm out in front of the other two. Gabriella gave him a questioning look, and Urchin remembered that she couldn't hear a thing. "I can hear King Triton yelling," he told her, and Gabriella nodded. Another voice echoed through the palace. Urchin recognized it instantly. "And Ariel is with him! I think they're having a fight," he said. Just then, there was silence, and Ariel sped past them. She looked miserable.<em>

_They watched as she swum off, Flounder hot on her tail. Ollie exclaimed, "She's heading for her grotto!"_

_He and Urchin started to swim after her, but Gabriella signed frantically. Ollie read, "She needs to be alone, I think."_

_Urchin folded his arms in frustration, complaining, "Then why is Flounder going with her?"_

_Gabriella signed again. "You know how Ariel is when she's upset. Flounder's one of the few fish in the sea who can comfort her. We should just wait until she's feeling better."_

_Flipping, Urchin grudgingly admitted, "Alright, alright." He glanced in the direction of Ariel's grotto._

_Gabriella smiled at him and signed, "You're a true friend for wanting to comfort her, Urchin."_

_The fourteen-year-old merboy gave Gabriella a weak smile. "Yeah, I know."_


	2. Chapter 1: Ariel's In Love!

The morning began with a bang. Urchin growled as he realized that he had, yet again, been jerked from a good dream by falling out of his hammock. Rubbing his eyes, he got up and swum slowly over to his counter. He looked in the mirror, sighing at his disobedient blonde hair and cloudy blue eyes. The most he could do with his appearance was to comb his hair and brush his teeth – and even then, the merboy didn't look much better.

Once he was done getting ready for the day, Urchin surveyed his cave. The storm last night had sent currents of water rolling everywhere, and his cave was a mess. Or, had it always been a mess? Urchin shrugged. Turning to the mouth of his cave, he sped out toward, as always, the palace.

Gabriella and Ollie met him at the front doors. Both were distraught. "Ariel's gone!" signed Gabriella. Ollie whimpered as he said it.

Urchin's jaw dropped. "What? When? What?" he babbled.

Gabriella continued. "She just did not return home last night, and nobody has seen her this morning either!"

Urchin raised his fists. "Do you think the Lobster Mobster has her? Or Crab Louie? Or the Evil Manta?"

"No," said Ollie, speaking for himself. "I don't think so. Flounder and Sebastian are gone too."

Gabriella looked miserable. "What if something horrible happened in the storm?"

Urchin didn't want to even think about that. "We have to find her!"

"Find who?"

Urchin's jaw dropped again as the threesome spun around. There, floating around behind them as if nothing had happened, was Ariel!

"Ariel?" gasped Ollie. Gabriella beamed.

Urchin gaped for a second, and then realized how stupid he must look. "Where were you? We were worried!" he cried, then composed himself and said, "Well, you know, I mean, _Gabriella_ was worried. Yeah."

Ariel shrugged happily. "Oh, around," she answered, giving Urchin a kiss on both of his cheeks. Urchin felt his cheeks turn as red as Sebastian's claws, and he tried to hide his blush with his palms.

Gabriella giggled and signed, "We were just worried about you, Ariel."

Ariel smiled absentmindedly. "Oh, well, I'm fine." She sped off toward the powder room she shared with her sisters, humming as she went.

Ollie stared after her. "What's up with her? She's acting all goofy!"

Urchin's eyebrows knotted together. Then, embarrassed, he noticed he was poking the places on his cheek where Ariel had kissed him. He jerked his hands away from his face, hoping nobody had seen the entire experience.

Gabriella laughed silently, rolling over. Ollie gave her a confused look and asked, "What's so funny, Gabriella?"  
>Gabriella straightened up and signed, "Oh, you boys. Do you not see? Ariel's in love!"<p>

Urchin's face went straight past the color of Sebastian and straight to the shade of Ariel's hair. "W-what?" he stammered.

"Hey, guys!" They turned to see Flounder speeding toward them.

"Flounder! What _happened_ last night? Ariel's acting strange!" exclaimed Ollie.

Flounder smiled a little. "It's a secret! But I need you guys' help! I found something that Ariel will love!"

Gabriella laughed silently again. Flounder gave her a perplexed look. Gabriella calmed herself down and signed, "Of course, Flounder. Whatever we can do to help Ariel."

Spinning around, Flounder cheered, "Great! Follow me!" He swam off, with his three curious friends on his tail.

After a few minutes of nonstop swimming, Flounder stopped in the middle of what looked like the ruins of a ship.

"These are new," commented Urchin, getting a closer work at the debris on the ocean floor.

Flounder nodded. "Yup!" He swam towards a large boulder and disappeared behind it. "Come on! It's over here!" Urchin, Gabriella, and Ollie shared surprised looks, and then swam up to the rock.

When they looked behind the rock, Gabriella nodded understandingly. "You need us to help you move it!" she signed to Flounder, who grinned. Urchin could only stare at the huge thing. It was a large stone statue of a human! The human was posing with a sword and a shield.

"Why would Ariel like this?" Urchin asked, rubbing the shield.

Flounder chuckled, seeming almost nervous. "Oh, you know A-ariel, Urchin. She loves human things!"

Urchin had to admit that made sense. He signaled to a nearby whale. After explaining that he wanted this statue moved, he asked the whale if he would be willing to help. The whale, a friendly fellow, agreed, and the merteens plus Ollie and the whale began to lift it.

It took a good hour, but the statue finally was deposited in Ariel's grotto. They all thanked the whale, who had to leave, and waved as the big mammal swum away.

"Don't tell her!" Flounder told them. "It's a surprise!" The little fish swum off, doubtless to find Ariel.

Urchin wondered why Flounder wouldn't tell them anything about the statue – or what happened last night. He shrugged. Oh well. Ariel would tell them soon enough.


	3. Chapter 2: A Little Muddy Puddy

Urchin swam toward the grotto, crazy with curiosity. What was up with Ariel and her statue? Why had Flounder acted so weird about it? The merboy hadn't been able to take the suspense and had decided to go to Ariel in her grotto.

As he hurried along, he thought about Ariel's actions. She'd acted a bit loony, humming all the time and spinning for no reason at all. He'd asked her if she wanted to show him the shipwreck she went to during the concert, but it was as if Ariel hadn't even heard him. Gabriella said the only time Ariel had paid attention to her was when Ariel accidentally ran into the deaf-mute mermaid. Truth be told, Urchin felt a little hurt. Why was his friend ignoring him? He doubted Ollie and Gabriella felt much better. Of course, Flounder knew what was going on in Ariel's head, so he was fine with her behavior; but the fish not telling anyone about Ariel's thoughts was a bit hurtful too. Urchin almost stopped swimming when he realized how dumb he sounded. Ariel would tell him soon, of course! Ariel never kept secrets from him!

When Urchin reached the grotto, he didn't go straight to the secret entrance. Ariel had worked hard to insure the secrecy of her hiding spot and had made her closest friends promise to be careful approaching it. Urchin darted from rock to rock, pretending to have no purpose to his movements. When he was certain nobody was looking at him or the entrance, he sneaked over to it

To his shock and horror, the boulder door that usually hid the secret entrance had been blown away. This could only mean one thing, and Urchin dreaded what it meant for Ariel. He raced inside, groaning when he saw what had happened.

Ariel's many treasures were tossed across the floor – what was left of her treasures, anyway. Almost all of them had been broken, scorched to flakes, or crushed. Urchin knew immediately that King Triton had found the cave. Despite Ariel's desperate attempts to keep anyone in her family from knowing about the grotto, word had leaked out. The collection of human thingamabobs was destroyed.

With a pain in his stomach, Urchin looked around for the statue. He found part of the feet in one corner, the top of the shield in another corner, and many other unnamed parts all over the place. The human statue's face was sitting next to the rock where Ariel liked to sit. Urchin sighed and sat on the rock, looking around at the once intriguing vault. "Poor Ariel," he muttered. "She worked years collecting all this."

An idea came to him . . . yes! It might just work! He sprung from the rock, a grin on his face. King Triton had shocked the statue to bits, but few things under the sea couldn't be repaired with muddy-puddy! Urchin sped out of the grotto, pausing only to roll the stone over the entrance. It wouldn't hurt if his project was kept a secret. He turned to the direction of Gabriella's cave, but paused. For some reason, he felt like doing this himself. He blushed again when he thought of the kisses Ariel had placed on his cheeks. Then Urchin felt a pain in his gut. Ariel was in love – Gabriella and all of Ariel's sisters had said so over and over – so who was she in love with? Urchin bit his lip, trying to ignore the thought. But he couldn't. Was it Nerio? Agua? Angelo? He tried to stop thinking these things, but they continued to echo in the back of his mind as he swam off in search of muddy-puddy.


	4. Chapter 3: Nightmares

Urchin could hardly stay awake. How long had he been here, in Ariel's grotto? This statue was harder to put together than he had thought. Rubbing his eyes, Urchin surveyed his work. The head was done, and so was the shield. They looked pretty good – covered in mud and cracked, but as good as it could get. King Triton's trident could probably smooth everything over, but the king would never fix a human object. Urchin's arms ached. He looked down at them and saw little cuts from the sharper pieces of the statue. Urchin was glad the cuts were small; merpeople healed quickly, but any blood could attract a ravenous shark.

Looking around at the grotto, Urchin decided that Ariel wouldn't mind if he spent the night here. She had sleep-overs with him and Gabriella and Ollie all the time anyway. Slowly, the merboy swam over to his usual corner beneath a shelf of dinglehoppers. He cleared the debris out of the corner, curled up, and fell quickly asleep.

_Urchin knew almost immediately that he was having a nightmare. It always started out in Atlantica. He swam past many creatures, all miserable. Knowing what was coming next, he desperately tried to stop himself from going into the king's throne room, but he knew already that nothing would stop him. On the throne were the king and Sebastian, both frowning. Urchin tried to stop his mouth from forming the question, but it came out: "What's wrong with everybody?"_

_King Triton jerked from his stupor and tapped Sebastian. Sebastian woke up, flexing his claws and looking around. When he saw Urchin, he asked, "Urchin, why have you bothered to return to Atlantica?" _

_Urchin felt a horrible feeling in his stomach. Sebastian continued. "Since Ariel left, dis place has been no fun at all, man. The king hasn't signed a proclamation in years." As Sebastian kept talking, Urchin felt a headache coming on. "There's no dancing! No singing" exclaimed Sebastian. He held up a poster. "And Flounder has become a juvenile delinquent fish!"_

_Urchin looked at Sebastian. He felt the old heart-wrenching hurt. "This is terrible!" he cried, stifling a sob. Raising a fist, the merboy shouted, "I'm gonna find her and bring her back!" Urchin braced himself for the next part – the worst part._

_Sebastian shook his head and whimpered, "Oh-ho-ho, hang it up, man. Ariel is never coming back!"_

_Turning, Urchin sped out of the palace, screaming, "NO! What am I gonna do? Ariel! Ariel! Ariel!" He swam out of Atlantica, still frantically calling Ariel's name. Suddenly, he was in the middle of nowhere . . . all alone._

"_ARIEL! ARIEL!"_

Urchin awoke with a start. He looked around at the wrecked grotto miserably. The nightmare was over, but he knew it would never completely go away. It would always be there, in the back of his mind, haunting him.

Knowing he couldn't sleep, Urchin returned to the statue. Perhaps if he fell asleep working on it, his nightmare would not return.

**Alright, author's note time: I didn't want to put an author's note here, but I have to put a disclaimer.**

**DISCLAIMER: The brilliant and wonderful Disney owns Urchin in its entirety. They pretty much own this storyline, too. Urchin's nightmare is quoted word for word from "Marriage of Inconvenience" (Season 1, Episode 9, of _The Little Mermaid_ TV series). Capeesh? Capeesh. Much love,**

**Ami**


End file.
